High Childcare Costs - work for negative money?

[Camomila]

Just wondering how many people end up doing this?

I'm on mat leave atm, I earn £67 a day, a baby place at nursery is £63. Add in the train fare on rainy days and I'm going to work for zero extra money in the pot.
But...there is a massive recession and I should hold on to my job shouldn't I?

Please tell me what to do wise mumsnetters!

@Devlesko Surely you can see that it may not be so easy to get back into a job after you've stayed at home, though?

Imagine you're on 30k now, then you take a break for three years and the best job you can get is 20k/yearor 15k with the coming recession. Over time, with cumulative salary increases etc., you're better off staying in work than taking time out.

Obviously it depends on what sector you're in, but I would be very wary of making the assumption you're going to walk into a job in a few years' time with a gap on your CV.

I wouldnt do it either...i loved being at home when my kids were tiny and we were not well off...we just lived frugally and somehow managed.

This was my situation when I had my third. Except the numbers were more like I earned 63 and paid 67 (obviously we thought about childcare as a cost that came out of our joint salary). That ratio went on for about a year. I kept working and was really glad I did. Some of the benefits:

I enjoyed working and wouldn't have been as happy full time at home
I had other benefits like life insurance, pension etc.
My cv stayed up to date.
By putting in the time when the kids were little, I earned a reputation for being reliable and effective. When I wanted more flexibility during the school years (ime that is when flexibility becomes key) work were happy to oblige me.

I look at my pension fund now and think what it would have been if I hadn't stayed working - radically different.

But in the end of the day this is one of those decisions which is personal. I didn't want to be home full-time. if you do, then this may give you the reason you do it.

Maybe I should blame my "neither a lender nor a borrower be" DF but the idea of getting into debt would scare me more than not working for a short period.

The other thing that occurs to me is that there are no guarantees on job security. Several of my friends have lost their jobs due to their industries collapsing and are having to start again anyway.

In a similar situation I moved to a more flexible job but with opportunity for role expansion and no commuting costs so it might be worth considering whether other roles might be suitable.

Also investigate whether dh can either drop to 4 days a week or work condensed hours.

Although dropping to 4 days might sound extreme especially if he earns quite a bit, actually you get the most tax breaks for the first few days of the week. Say if you just work one day a week you will probably pay no tax, even on two days a week you won't pay loads of tax. For a higher rate tax payer by the time you get to Friday you are paying 40% tax at least so you need to work until lunchtime before you even take home anything. If he drops to 4 days your dc does 2 days in nursery you could be better off than him working 5 days a week. Plus of course he has time with dc, you possibly save on dc1 after school care and he gets a chance to do more housework. Do some calculations together.

I wouldn't want to get into debt to have children either or to have them in child care.
As a pp pointed out, there are no guarantees of job security and if you end up peniless and in debt the children don't benefit.
It's different if you lose money in one job but can still cope without getting into debt.

Most people I know found the solution was to make sure that the childcare was needed for as few days as possible. So a mix of weekend/evening working or working compressed hours so that they got a better ratio between salary and childcare. It means very little free time /couple time but that always seemed like the best of the options.

I worked 5 days work in 4 days, and DH took a day off in the week and worked at the weekends, so we could both work full time but only needed 3 days of nursery costs.

In the time my children were in nursery my salary doubled and my increase in seniority also now means I am able to choose how and when I work. It was absolutely worth the "hardly making any money after childcare" years